The time is now to change the way we police America before hundreds of thousands of more pieces of military gear go to main streets across America. The face of America is changing quickly. Let's make sure it's not for the worse.

Real progress comes from young renegades thinking outside the box willing to take risks to challenge the status quo. It is this kind of science that gets lost in the shuffle every time the giant pork machine dispenses its largesse to the usual suspects.

The consensus as I've experienced as a researcher is that (1) ignorant political attacks will not affect our ability to get work done, and (2) it is not our job to help the public understand our work. I think both claims are wrong, and potentially dangerous to the future of science.

The speech Barack Obama gave in Tucson was a memorial to the victims of a horrible tragedy, but the spirit of his speech could also shape Tuesday's State of the Union address by calling us to be worthy of each victim's sacrifice.

Obama made a bold move engaging conservative senators on state-run health care. If he keeps this up he may win big time, installing a "hybrid" of federal and state-run solutions for health care reform.